Four volunteer firefighters from Baltimore County have been suspended after being accused harassing and sexually assaulting another male recruit.
21-year-old Joshua Burkins and his brother, 20-year-old Andrew Burkins, along with 20-year-old John Hefner and 19-year old Colby Ogrysko all work with the Fallston Volunteer Fire Company in Maryland.
They were placed on leave this week after being charged in connection to homophobic abuse and sexual assault they allegedly directed at a 17-year-old recruit.
The victim, whose name has not been released, claims three of the men pinned him down in his bunk late one night and attempted to rape him with not one but two wooden door wedges whilst shouting antigay slurs.
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After the assault, the victim continued working alongside his alleged attackers. He didn’t report the abuse to the sheriff’s department until he says Joshua Burkins called him from the firehouse one day and shouted homophobic remarks at him over the phone.
To complicate matters, Baltimore County Fire Captain, Angela Hughes, is the mother of two of the accused assailants, Joshua and Andrew Burkins. Additionally, the men’s father, step-father, and uncle are also high-ranking officials within the country’s fire operations. They represent generations of service.
Rich Gardiner of the Harford County Volunteer Fire & EMS Association worries the case is going to make recruiting volunteer firefighters even tougher than it already is.
“It’s a concern,” he says, “but when you look at the general recruitment efforts across the country and Maryland and just in Harford County, it’s a constant struggle.”
Related: Cop who once led sting operations targeting gay men busted for engaging in pervy behavior
g-sing
antigay slurs? isnt that a double negative?
Greg
The headline says “raping young recruit”. The article says “attempted rape with not one, but two wooden door wedges”. Does it make it worse that they tried to use two? Separately, or trying to DP him? Is the recruit actually gay? Why is a 17 year-old recruit sleeping over at a fire house? Is he actually working there? Is it rape if they use door wedges? Wasn’t anybody else in the fire house that night? Nobody heard or saw anything? I would surmise that one or more of the four homophobes are themselves gay. Either in denial or closeted. That should be looked into. Call the police. There are other cities. Other fire departments. Those four just ruined their careers. It’s worse that the mother of two of them and other family members are high ranking officials. Either they run a crappy corrupt fire department or they didn’t raise their boys right.
happiness17
Greg-Actually in small towns there are some 17 year old’s who are volunteer fireman. In Edgartown (Martha’s Vineyard) there’s a 17 year old on the force who has done outstanding work. I think in smaller communities people as young as 17 can be on a volunteer fire department. As for the 17 year old kid sleeping at the firehouse. Fallston, Maryland is a small town. Evidently the powers that be at the fire station felt that he’d be safe. How they wrong were.
Greg
Okay, so the recruit was held down by the others and they attempted to rape him with door wedges. Did he fight them off? Did they succeed getting the door wedges in? Both, or just one? How did he get them to stop? What happened after they stopped? They were shouting gay slurs, did anybody hear them? Same thing when one of the accused called the recruit from the firehouse and shouted into the phone? Nobody working there heard him?
Jack Meoff
Clearly an abuse of power by the sons of the people in authority. The boy would have felt unable to report them because of the high positions held by their parents etc. This is appalling and not dissimilar to that woman whose father was a sheriff that attacked those gay men.
Sam6969
“The Baltimore County firefighter department is now conducting an internal investigation”. I am wondering if it will be fairly conducted…since the Captain is the mother of two of the aggressors and that they already find all kind of unrelated excuses (generations of firefighters in the same family, lack of firefighters, etc. )